Deconstruct
by elric-logic
Summary: Everything Ichigo never wanted to think about went to a hidden place inside of him, never to be seen or heard from again, until one day, a girl comes around and pries bits and pieces out of him one at a time. IchiRuki / Rated M - Lemonade - Violence - Language - Drugs / Multi-chapter / OOC / AU / Title/Genres subject to change


Kurosaki Ichigo never enjoyed the holidays. And even though one could argue that New Year's Eve isn't technically a holiday, because the eve of a holiday isn't the celebrated day in question, it was no different than New Year's Day itself, with its ridiculous hype and short-lived countdowns. He wasn't a fan of the fireworks that shortly followed midnight, the ones that kept him awake when he and his drunkenness just wanted to sleep, and he surely wasn't all too thrilled about trying to convince his intoxicated goat of a father to try and get some sleep, either. (He did, however, enjoy the once-a-year refreshments that the ever-so irresponsible Goat Face allowed him to consume.)

Among many of the factors that formed his distaste for holidays, Ichigo hated the moment his father handed his two younger sisters the green bills that forced him out of the house to accompany them into the bustling town in the early hours of his morning, taking away the precious pre-noon sleep he could never get back. As much as he loved seeing his sisters happy and treated to a rare luxury, he hated chasing after them across town only to carry the two of them home on his back while carrying their many bags full of the day's selected prizes. It's not that he wasn't incapable; it was just that they (and their new toys and/or clothes) got heavier every year, and the distance they traveled was even further away than the previous holiday's bouts.

This year, however, Karin and Yuzu were older, and this was the year Ichigo was dreading. The previous years consisted mostly of toy stores with the infrequent stop into a clothing store or an electronics kiosk, but the order was slowly reversing. His now eighth grade-age and high school-bound sisters enjoyed clothes too much for Ichigo's comfort. If there was anything Ichigo hated more than holidays-and there were many things- it was the women's department of clothing stores. Especially when it came to the types of clothes that teenage boys thought about.

After following his sisters in several circles all around the department and hooking hanger after hanger over his forearms when theirs were full, Ichigo _finally_ sulked outside of the dressing room, counting down the seconds on his digital watch for the next hour and a half of waiting on his giggling sisters to decide which outfits they wanted to purchase. His crossed arms rested against his gray button-down covered torso, his Vans tapping impatiently on the gaudy store carpet as he leaned against the door frame entrance of the dressing room. His eyes glared at the blue rug beneath his feet; there was nowhere else to look unless he wanted to see the racks of clothes his sisters were trying on in the room behind him and picture them wearing the some of the clothes in his head.

It wasn't the fact that he was in the lingerie department that made him uncomfortable; it was the idea of just who, exactly, was in the fitting room behind him trying on various products from within this department that made him want to punch the wall- or rather, the first guy's face to look at either of them as if they were picturing what his sisters would look like in these clothes. Call him whatever you want, but if you called him an overprotective asshole that babied his sisters as much as Goat Face did, you would be one hundred percent correct. And despite Ichigo being prideful and protective over his reputation, breaking the bones of the first boy to speak to either of his sisters in a more-than-friendly tone was something he would not hesitate to proudly announce.

Glancing at his watch after what felt like a half hour, he groaned when he realized that only a minute and a half had gone by, wasted away by his classic smirking and constant glare at nothing in particular.

"Are you waiting for someone?" a woman's gentle voice said from somewhere beneath his murky, thought-filled head. "Because you're kind of blocking the entrance."

Upon hearing the unexpected voice, Ichigo lifted his gaze from the hideous carpet beneath him to address the woman who spoke to him, and found the striking eyes of a small girl who was carrying a few articles of clothing over her forearm. Their color-a vibrant shade of purple- was only half the reason he was awestruck from looking at her.

It was how _entitle_d she looked, almost as if she owned the place, owned his existence, and dictated it however she pleased. Despite the immediate Bitch Alarm that he raised in his head, Ichigo had a hard time admitting to himself the admiration he felt towards her sense of authority and the way she carried herself.

"Excuse me," Ichigo said, "but I'm sorry to inform you that I'm not in your way. And yes, I am waiting for someone."

"Well," the girl quickly retorted, "you see all these people wandering around the nearby area, pretending to be looking in the clothing racks and checking their phones?" She lifted a hand up as she turned her body away from him slightly, gesturing to the handful of women who, to Ichigo, appeared to just be shopping. "They're waiting for you to move. You're blocking the entrance."

"And how am I doing that?" Ichigo said, tightening the fold of his arms. His foot had stopped tapping. "As you can clearly see, I am standing _next _to the doorway, _not in it_. There's plenty of room to enter and exit without having your personal space invaded."

"Not with your attitude clogging up the door. Who are you guarding in there?" Ichigo shrugged. He supposed it was likely that he had taken on a guarding posture while thinking about his sisters and boys. "Seriously, do you try to get people to not want to talk to you? You're basically unapproachable."

"You approached me, so I guess I'm not_ that_ unapproachable, right?"

"Well you see, good sir, I'm not a pussy. Now please retract your ego and let me through." Though slightly dazed by the daring attitude of the girl in front of him, he closed his eyes and lowered his face slightly, in defeat, sighing as his arms fell from his chest and he stepped even further to the side, lifting an arm and bowing slightly as if he were allowing her entrance.

"After you, princess," he said sarcastically in response to her thanks. She snickered at his words like she found some hidden meaning inside of them that he wasn't aware of, but he dismissed it without another thought.

"Did you intend to follow me inside?" Her skeptic eyes scrutinized him, glancing him up and down.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, once again, but I'm not into that kind of lifestyle, nor am I that forward."

"Nice cover, skyscraper," she complimented. Her violet eyes squinted slightly for a brief moment before flashing up to find Ichigo's caramel orbs once more. Whatever she had noticed seemed to be unworthy of mentioning.

"Well, I'm going to say goodbye now, and carry on with my day," she said, nodding towards the inside of the fitting room. She smiled at him once, earning a nod from the boy who resumed his lean against the wall, before striding past him into the fitting room, clutching the clothes on her arm with her free hand. Ichigo watched her as she walked away, his eyes drawn to what she was fiddling with, as if she were purposefully trying to bring her clothes to his attention, discreetly.

In her hands seemed to be rather long pieces of fabric colored electric blue, deep purple, and a very faint baby pink, which Ichigo presumed to be dresses. Along with the dresses, she had smaller portions of clothing that, once he identified them and involuntarily visualized her future actions of trying them on, felt an uncomfortable heat rise to his face as he quickly shook the picture out of his mind and desperately tried to forget.

Another reason for him to hate the holidays.

A few impatient and rather uncomfortable moments later, Ichigo felt his stomach rumble from the lack of breakfast of that morning. He wondered idly how long his sisters were going to be before discarding the answer that he didn't want to hear, and decided to take matters into his own hands.

"Can you two hurry up in there?" Ichigo called, poking his head into the room. "I'm starving."

"Go suck a dick, Ichi-nii!"

"What the hell, Karin?! Where'd that come from?!"

Instead of answering his question, she suggested he go to the food court and eat alone, then bring back leftovers for them to eat when they got home that night. Ichigo, desperate to do something else with his time, sighed in defeat. As always, the twins won.

"Wait, Ichi-nii!" Yuzu called from her stall, her young voice followed by sounds of stumbling and the sound of plastic colliding with metal. Her fingers seemed to fumble with the sliding lock in her hurried attempt to get out before her brother left.

"What do you think of this one?" she asked after finally stumbling out into view, sporting a lacey pink bubble skirt with a thick black waist band, with a bright white scoopneck top stretching over her sprouting chest, the sleeves reaching just past the creases in her elbows.

She looked much older in that than what she had in what she was wearing when they entered the store, especially with her cropped, sandy hair.

"I don't like it," Ichigo said bluntly, starting to turn away from his sister's offended dropped jaw and crossed arms, when his attention was caught by Karin stepping out of her stall in bright teal skinny jeans and a simple, loose, orange shirt with a sleeve hanging off of her shoulder. Both twins stood barefoot, their shoes forgotten on the floor somewhere behind them.

"What about mine, Ichi-nii?" she asked, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear, glancing down nervously and pulling the shirt down a bit further.

"Why do you guys care so much about my opinion?" Ichigo wondered aloud in frustration, continuing to turn away once more, before the sound of a lock coming undone stopped him in his tracks for a second time. The twins' heads turned simultaneously to look in the direction of the third stall in the room, to the right of Yuzu's, where the girl from earlier stepped out, looking much different than the jean-clad, black graphic t-shirt-sporting female who'd just entered the stall a few minutes ago.

A nearly knee-length baby pink dress draped the girl's small, slender figure, the flowing skirt twirling with the slightest of her movements, held tight onto her waist by a thick white satin ribbon. The sweetheart neckline of the strapless gown clung to her small breasts perfectly, the dress accenting every bit of her dainty yet surprisingly curvacious figure.

Even Ichigo couldn't kid himself when his first thought was how beautiful she looked.

She seemed to not notice that all three of their heads turned in her direction. She looked only at Karin and Yuzu, as if it were no big deal to be wearing something so gorgeous and formal in the middle of the afternoon, and she inspected their temporary attire. It was then that Ichigo could tell that, despite the fact that the girl was hardly taller than either of his sisters, she was obviously older than them.

"You guys look great in those outfits," she finally said with a gentle smile, after a moment of careful thought had gone by. "I don't know what parts are being tried on, but they look nice. Except yours," she said, pointing at Yuzu's. "The shirt looks nice, don't get me wrong, but you should try looking for something slightly darker and with shorter sleeves. It will compliment your hair better, which is really cute, by the way. Kinda have the Miley Cyrus thing going on, but I'm going to assume you had it first."

Yuzu's face lit up with excitement from the girl's words, and it was then that Ichigo could tell she was about to spill every thought that went through her brain.

She smiled brightly when she spoke to the knowledgable girl.

"Thanks!" she said happily, her fingers reaching up to mess with the short bangs falling limply against her forehead. "I've had it since I was a kid. I mean, I'm still a kid now, obviously, but I mean when I was little. I don't know, my mother used to cut our hair as kids and she tried out this style with both my sister and I, and I thought it looked cool and cute so I kept it that way ever since. Karin-my sister- grew her hair out over the years but she keeps it a little short, too. It's less of a hassle that way."

The girl reached up to curl her finger around a dangling lock of her own hair and looked at it briefly, then dropped it as she opened her mouth to speak.

"I know mine isn't very long, but I've been thinking about cutting it shorter." As she spoke, she brushed a small section of her bangs that fell in between her violet eyes behind her ear in a fruitless attempt to get it out of her face; it only fell back into place when she let go of the stubborn strands.

"I personally don't think you should cut it, or at least not too short," Karin interjected, forcing herself into the conversation. "No shorter than chin length. I think it would look bad with your face."

The girl laughed while Yuzu's face contorted; she turned quickly to scold her sister's mannerisms.

"Karin! That was rude!"

"Speaking of rude," the girl said, not caring about Karin's comment in the slightest. She faced Ichigo with an expression that matched her accusational tone, her hard eyes meeting his with a glare that could give him a run for his money. "This little jack butt right here needs to apologize. He thinks you guys look nice, but he's just too afraid to admit it to himself. He's also an attention-seeker, deep down. Is he your brother?" She finished speaking while looking at Karin directly.

The girl received a nod from the young, dark-haired teen, who had changed her posture to crossing her arms and putting most of her weight on one leg. She had an amused smile on her naturally pale lips, watching the well-dressed young woman with interest.

"Yeah, Ichi-nii," Yuzu said, jumping on the first opportunity to tease her brother that presented itself. She turned to face him with a playfully menacing look, matching her twin's crossed arms and single-leg lean. "You _do_ like what we're wearing. Admit it. And after you admit it and we buy these clothes,_ you_ can carry the bags_ all by yourself_."

"I already do that, every year, you idiot," he said, rolling his eyes. "Now what do you want to eat?"

"Do you like Chinese food?" the girl in the dress asked suddenly, turning to Ichigo's sisters as she spoke, practically cutting off Ichigo as he finished his sentence. Her eyes lit up as she anxiously awaited their answer.

They both nodded, and the girl smiled, showing off two rows of perfectly aligned, unnaturally white teeth within her small mouth.

"Cool, because I work at China Max, so I can get you a half-off discount, up to ten dollars."

Both twins' faces lit up with minor excitement. Even Ichigo felt slightly impressed, because now he wouldn't have to be shelling out so much money to feed his sisters.

"Ichi-nii!" Yuzu exclaimed, as always making a bigger deal out of things than they really were, or needed to be. "Go get us some food! I want orange chicken!"

"Just get us some to share," Karin said, speaking up, making up for her twin's excited outburst by dulling and closing the situation. They were opposite ends of sticks that fit together in a perfect balance, making up for the others' flaws with their strengths.

"I mean," the girl said, speaking up, "I'd have to go with you to get you the discount, if it's not a problem to wait for me."

Ichigo nodded. "I guess I'll be right in front of the counter, then," he said with a shrug, beginning to turn, starting to stick his large hands into his pockets.

"Oh, no," she said quickly, reaching behind her with quick, small hands, fiddling with the zipper on the back. "I'll be just a second. I like how this one looks."

"I do, too," Yuzu said, offering her opinion as the girl turned to re-enter her changing stall, exposing her unzipped, nearly bare back, cut in the middle by the gray strapless bra with a tag hanging in the back (much to Ichigo's discomfort, evident by his slightly blush that he lowered his head and stared at his feet to cover). The door didn't shut all the way, sitting ajar, the girl in a hurry to change out of her dress and not noticing.

Karin went back into her stall to change out of her clothes and into the next outfit to try on.

"I'm going to go look for a different shirt," Yuzu said, hurrying past her brother into the rest of the store, keeping the girl's seemingly expert advice in mind for her selection.

"What's that dress for?" Karin questioned, raising her voice slightly to carry over the tops of the stalls. Ichigo stood just inside the room, leaning against the frame, arms crossed and foot lifted to rest against the frame as well. He looked around the room for something of interest to stare at until he could leave, impatience building within him slightly as his stomach threatened to rumble with hunger. His eyes passed over all of the wooden doors, one by one, along the ceiling and floor boards, and even over the mirror that stood across from the stalls. It was there, in the reflection from the door sitting barely ajar on its hinges, that he found his thing of interest to stare at. With no one watching him or suspicious of his actions, a shameless smirk crossed his face as he learned that she was going steal the panties she had just tried on, sitting right beneath her now bare, silky back, the tag removed and stuck in the crack of the two panels that made the wall. How devious, he thought to himself. This girl was truly interesting.

She then turned, having stepped out of her dress, practically giving Ichigo a full view of her porcelain, pale body as she did so, through the slim crack in the door, the perfect angle.

He would have seen everything, had he not blinked at the perfect second. He saw enough, however, to start the beginnings of a buldge somewhere down south. He felt torn between wishing he saw more, and enjoying the unintentional tease.

But after he had that thought, a sudden sense of guilt flushed through him, and he darted his eyes away, down to his shoes. He wasn't normally a pervert, he had always looked away as soon as he caught his eyes glancing at a girl's chest, and never looked at any pictures while relieving his occasional morning wood. And now, for the first time, he did a truly perverted act; peeking at an innocent, unknowing woman as she changed.

But why the new change in behavior? There was a first time for everything, he supposed, and he was nearly an adult; his eighteenth birthday was in the upcoming July. But it just felt so wrong, so uncharacteristic of him. He didn't even know the girl.

"My older brother was invited to a party by one of his wealthy friends," the girl said immediately, tearing Ichigo from his thoughts as he listened intently to the woman, feeling as if that would somehow make it up to her for his unruly actions. "And I get to go along with him, but I don't have any dresses. I'm not much of a girly-girl, but I do know my way around a wardrobe, that's for sure."

"I'd have to agree with you on that," Karin said with a small laugh. After a moment passed, Karin spoke up again, hidden behind the door. "I know my sister already told you my name, but I'm Karin," she said, formally introducing herself. "And her name is Yuzu, if you didn't catch it."

"I'm Rukia," the girl said in response. Ichigo could see her stepping into a pair of jeans from underneath the door, where his guilty eyes had taken to gluing themselves, and the impatience building up within him started to deplete, seeing her be nearly complete with her chore. "It was a very nice pleasure to meet you."

"You, too," Karin said, the obvious smile on her lips evident in her voice. "You look really beautiful in that dress, by the way. I'm glad you chose that one over the others."

Rukia laughed. "You didn't even see them," she said, fumbling around with what sounded like a hanger from inside her stall.

"I don't need to see them to know that_ that_ one is the _right_ one."

"Well thank you, Karin," Rukia said, pulling open her door. Ichigo, who had been looking in that direction, turned his head away quickly before she could see, then casually turned towards her after she had stepped out. He waited until she crossed the room towards the exit and hung up the dresses she opted out of getting before removing himself from the frame, keeping his scowl glued on his face.

"I'm ready to go," Rukia said, looking up at Ichigo, craning her neck slightly to meet his hard gaze. "I just have to pay for this, if you don't mind."

"Not at all," Ichigo said politely, hoping that his weaning patience was hidden from his voice. "I'll be back soon, Karin, tell Yuzu."

"Okay," Karin responded. Rukia stepped out of the room first, then paused to search the ceiling for a check-out sign, and when she couldn't find one, she began walking again in the direction of the front of the store. Ichigo followed, shoving his hands into his pockets and looking down as he walked, purposefully following several steps behind her.

"I didn't catch your name," she said, turning her head around to look behind her as she continued to walk forward, the pink dress folded neatly over her arm, the gray bra back on its hanger and dangling from her hand.

"Huh?" Ichigo said, looking up.

"Your name?" she asked.

"Oh," he said. "It's Ichigo."

"_Just_ Ichigo? Doesn't a last name come with that?"

"Kurosaki Ichigo, your majesty," he said, rolling his eyes with an irritated scowl. This was going to be a long walk to the food court.

"Nice to meet you, Kurosaki Ichigo." She smiled at him, narrowing her eyes slightly, then faced forward again as she walked forward, turning a corner as they soon reached the front of the store with a row of registers. Rukia picked up the pace slightly to hurry to the open register, nearest to the walkway entrance that opened up directly into the mall.

"Did you find everything alright?" the cashier greeted her, flashing a bright smile.

"Yes, ma'am, thank you," Rukia said, nodding at the cashier, returning her grin. Ichigo finally caught up to her as the woman behind the register scanned the clothing, standing a couple feet behind the short girl and watching the transaction, hands still shoved deep into his pockets.

"Alright, your total is one hundred sixty-eight dollars and thirty-nine cents," the cashier said, bagging the clothes. Rukia had pulled out her wallet from a small purse hanging over her shoulder, sliding a card out from its pocket inside and handing it to the cashier. Ichigo raised an eyebrow at the shiny, black plastic, recognizing the name of the bank, and the several other cards that sat inside her wallet. He temporarily discarded the thought he had, not wanting to judge the girl without actually knowing her. There could be plenty of reasons as to why she held a membership in one of the most pristine, secluded, wealthy banks in the country.

"Debit or credit, ma'am?"

"Debit," Rukia answered, lifting her hand to the keypad as the cashier swiped the card behind the counter, Rukia's fingers quick to enter her pin number when asked to do so. She slid the card back into place with the many others inside when it was handed back to her.

"Do you want the receipt with you or in the bag?"

"In the bag, please." The gray plastic was handed over the counter to the waiting girl's hands, after she put her wallet away, back in her purse, zipping it shut.

"You two have a great New Year," she called out as Rukia began to leave, Ichigo following her, watching for signs of nervousness within the girl as she walked through the security gates. She strutted through, past the glass that stood inches taller than her, with a slight confident swing to her hips as she did so, the plastic bag dangling beside her.

Nothing. No security gates beeping, no involuntary jumping, no fixing her hair or pulling out a cell phone as she left. She was totally confident she would walk out of the store wearing unpaid for clothing, as if she knew with one hundred percent certainty that she wouldn't get caught. Like she had experience in the matter.

_Just who is this girl?_ Ichigo thought. It wasn't so much that she was mysterious, but that she seemed to have several different personalities, all inside one inhumanly short little body. She seemed like a straight up cold bitch, yet at the same time, very friendly and welcoming. She seemed annoyingly outgoing, yet with a slight shy side that she was almost perfect at shielding. (_Almost_.)

Ichigo watched her with a sudden curiosity now, as he walked out of the store, passing through the gates and nearly snickering when he saw how he practically towered over the tops of them, his shoulders barely clearing the curved rims of the plastic detectors.

Rukia walked on confidently into the mall, and only when she rounded the corner that led into the direction of the food court did she drop the pristine attitude she seemed to give; the swing in her hips was no longer pushy and in-your-face, it wa gentle, natural, unnoticable. The flat-heeled black boots she wore didn't seem to have such a loud click when she stepped, and her fingers started to play with the bag she carried, moving it as if she were about to twirl the thing around her arm in circles.

Like before, in the store, Rukia turned her head around as she continued to walk forward, gazing at Ichigo over her shoulder to make sure he was still following.

"Don't pull that crap," she said. Ichigo, confused, was surprised that, like earlier, she was so confrontational about what she had to say. It was as if she didn't think about what she said, before the words came out of her mouth; that, or she just didn't care about what someone thought of what she had to say.

"Pull what?" he asked innocently, confused by her accusational, glowing eyes that bored into his face.

"You have legs twice as long as mine. I'm pretty sure you can keep up without trying, so stop walking so slowly."

"Impatient, are we?" Ichigo teased, humoring her and picking up the pace slightly, catching up to her and falling into step beside her with only a handful of strides.

"It's not that," she said defensively. "I'm just hungry. And I always walk fast."

"Now why is that?" Ichigo pressed, and as the words came out of his mouth, he realized he had probably just said more words that day, up until that point, than he had said in any of the days of his life, for the past few years. He took a moment to think about that, but, like with many others previous, he discarded that thought when it started leading in disfavorable directions.

"It comes naturally, I suppose," she responded. "I guess it's because I'm always in a hurry, it feels like."

"Are you?"

Rukia didn't respond verbally, giving the uncharacteristically loquacious teenager a shrug instead, as they neared closer and closer to the food court that stood in the center of the mall on its second floor. The white Christmas lights still hung from the ceiling down into the open circle that cut into the second floor, the glass and rail surrounded the circular section decorated with garland wrapped around the hand beams all around the circle. The lights, still on their blinking timer, twinkled every few seconds for several minutes, until the next quarter hour arrived, which would then cause a new holiday song to play, loud enough for all of the food court to hear, and then the lights hanging from the ceiling would flash in beat with the song.

Rukia seemed mesmerized by the white lights as they twinkled above her, watching with thoughtful eyes as the pair passed by the area in the direction of the various franchises on the other side of the large room. Ichigo could care less about the attraction, and didn't give it a second look. He _did_, however, glance back down at the girl walking beside him, more than a second time, with a half irritated, half amused, smirk.

As they approached the large red sign hanging for all eyes to see, Rukia paused a short distance before the counter and looked up at Ichigo, craning her neck to see him properly.

"What do you want?" she asked him, making a quick mental note of what his sisters wanted. "I'm going to be the one to order."

"I'm still the one paying for it," Ichigo said. "I can order for myself."

"Well, Ichigo," Rukia began, "whatever you order for yourself is what you're also ordering for me. I can only get a discount on orders ten dollars or under, and I can't make multiple orders to take advantage of the discount. I can get in serious trouble for that." Ichigo groaned. He had not been planning on sharing his food with a stranger. He couldn't describe what an inconvenience he felt like that was, and hoped she didn't eat a whole lot.

"Fine, whatever," Ichigo said, waving her forward as he pulled out his leather wallet from his back pocket. "Get whatever. I don't care, I just want a bite to eat."

"Suit yourself," she said, stepping up to the counter and greeting the employee, creating small chit-chat for a few moments before Ichigo rushed her along, expressing his impatience ever so subtly. (But not really, which earned him a glare and the roll of her violet eyes in response.)

Rukia ended up ordering two five dollar platters of chicken, one orange chicken for the twins and one barbeque for herself and for Ichigo to (reluctantly) share.

As Rukia started to head back in the direction of the store in which Karin and Yuzu were still trying on various clothes, Ichigo grabbed her by the wrist, yanking her in the direction of an empty table, reaching with the ease of his long limbs.

"What part of 'starving' wasn't clear to you?" he said in response to the questioning look she threw at him as he tugged her along.

"Seems like you have your own form of impatience, skyscraper," Rukia teased, setting the styrofoam boxes onto the table Ichigo brought them to, and the plastic bag of clothes onto the chair next to her as she sat down across from the tall teen.

Ichigo didn't respond; he was already digging into the food aggressively with his plastic spork that threatened to break with the force he was using.

"Dummy, I'm hungry, too," Rukia reminded him after several non-stop bites, reaching over to pull the box away from him.

"Oh, sorry," Ichigo apologized, nearly forgetting the girl was there and that he was supposed to be sharing. He quickly slid the box towards Rukia, meeting her half way, then reached to his mouth with a napkin to wipe away the sauce that stuck to his lips.

"Fool, you ate almost half of it in half a minute," she said, slightly amazed, popping a piece of chicken into her waiting, hungry mouth. She paused to chew her food in silence, then continued speaking after swallowing. "That's both very rude _and_ impressive. Congrats."

"Can't say I learned from the best," Ichigo joked. "My dad wasn't much of an eater, surprisingly."

"Why is that surprising?" Rukia asked mid-bite, the chicken-filled spork stopping just before her mouth to ask her question.

"I don't know," Ichigo said, shrugging, crossing his arms on the table and leaning forward onto them. "He's kind of a big guy, he just looks like he'd eat a lot. He did go through a phase, once…" His voice trailed off as he nearly lost himself in a memory, one that he hid behind hard eyes and swallowed before Rukia could investigate the change in his behavior. "He started eating a bunch for a couple of months, after hardly eating anything during meals, and then ate less and less over time until he was back to normal. I'd bet that you could eat more than him, easily."

"Hm," Rukia said, a look of uncertainty and confusion on her thoughtful face. "That's a little weird."

"Yeah, he's a weird guy."

"What does he do for a living?"

"He's a doctor. Spends a lot of his time at the hospital downtown."

"Ah."

"What about your old man?"

"Don't have one," Rukia shrugged. "I was adopted."

"Wouldn't that make you have an adopted father?"

"Not necessarily, dummy," Rukia said, rolling her eyes, probably having heard that one several times before the buffoon in front of her said it. "My adoptive brother took me into his family when I was a baby. You could say he's my dad, because he holds that kind of role, but I mostly look at him like a brother. A very overprotective, controlling brother, but a brother nonetheless."

Ichigo was on the defense now.

"What's wrong with a protective brother?"

"When he is controlling, like I just said," Rukia said, glaring up at him as she leaned over their food. "When he doesn't know when to draw the line, when he doesn't trust your judgment, when he doesn't give you a chance to prove yourself. When he pushes you away with how close he tries to pull you to him."

Ichigo wasn't expecting that answer. He wondered what had happened between her and her brother to cause her to feel that way. He thought about himself and his sisters, and wondered how they felt about him.

"I'm sure you're just reading too much into-" Ichigo began, quickly cut off by the tempered girl before him. She stood up suddenly, shoving her chair backwards as it scraped along the tiled floor.

"You don't know about my brother, Ichigo, nor you do you know me! Do _not_ speak as if you do!" Ah, so she was playing_ that_ card?

"I don't need to know you in order to make a suggestion about your little problem," Ichigo fought, glaring up at her. "All I'm saying is to just try and look at his intent, jeez."

"What you don't seem to understand is that there is always a line, in everything anyone can do, where you shouldn't cross it!" Rukia said, raising her voice at him. "You better be careful that you don't cross the same one with your sisters that my brother crossed with me!" And with that, she threw her plastic utensil down onto the table, grabbed her clothes bag and purse angrily, and stormed off towards the stairs that led to the parking lot outside the mall. Ichigo watched, perplexed and angry.

What place did she think she was in to judge the relationship of him and the closest people to him? Frustrated, Ichigo dug into the last of the food left in the box, trying to cool himself off. She was just another girl who gave into her sensitive emotions at some point or another, and she was just another stranger that popped into his life and out just as fast as she had come in. Not a huge deal, not something he needed to dwell on.

His attention was suddenly caught by a vibration on his hip, and he stuck his hand into his pocket to pull out his cell phone. A text message from his irritating father, wondering what were taking his disgraceful son and his beautiful, precious daughters so long. Ichigo deleted the message angrily, hating his father's sense of humor. No matter how he tried to pass it off, there was always a hint of truth in his words.

Ichigo clicked to his contacts to call his father, pressing the device to his ear as it began to ring.

"Yes, my idiot son?" Kurosaki Isshin's grumbly and rough voice said through the phone.

"Fuck off, dad," Ichigo said, hanging up instantly. He quickly called him back to say that they would be home soon, promptly ending the call again before his father could get a word in. He shoved his phone back into his pocket, taking another bite of food, but before it could enter his mouth, he was interrupted by another vibration. Ignoring his father's persistence, Ichigo took the bite of chicken, dripping in the pooling sauce floating at the bottom of the styrofoam.

The vibrations didn't stop, which greatly frustrated the teen boy, who took out his cell phone to shut it off, but found the missing calls and unread text message not from his annoying father, but from someone else.

_To your right._

Ichigo turned, looking over in the specified direction, his hand reaching up to acknowledge their existence, his mouth reaching up at the corner in a greeting half-smile when he met the eyes of who was trying to get his attention.

* * *

**Okay, so that was an idea that kind of came out of nowhere while reading the ****_amazing _****works of the ****_amazing_**** author, KurosakiLove. Go over to her profile and give her some love.**

**This also sort of ended with a twist I wasn't expecting to use, but it comes from the suggestion to one of my loyal fans, Star fire girl 788, as she requested. So only she really has a slight idea of what's to come. ;D**

**But yes, this will be a multi-chapter story that I will occasionally update, when I get the chance to write. Definitely not in this month of November (for those of you familiar with NaNoWriMo) though there may be occasional updates if I need a break from my NaNo. (It's not a fanfic, but it IS based on Ichigo and Rukia's characters. ;D)**

**Big note with this story; the characters of Ichigo and Rukia are very OOC, because I do not know how to write them the way Kubo does, so this is my alteration of them. Other characters may or may not be OOC, or have varying degrees of OOC-ness because, once again, I did not create the characters, so I don't know what they would say or do in certain situations. **

**Also, this story is AU (for those of you who don't know, that means alternate universe, meaning not the Bleach storyline). There will be no Soul Society, no zanpakuto, no Hollows (or at least not what you will be expecting ;D, but that idea I have may or may not be used in this story), but there will be plenty of IchiRuki. This story is supposed to be taking place in the USA because those are the customs I am used to and I have plenty of knowledge and experience living here, but it will have Japanese honorifics and name pronunciations (Last Name, First Name), to honor the anime-aspect of it. Plus, I can't write Yuzu or Karin without them saying 'Ichi-nii' when they talk to him. :3**

**The rating MA is to be due to sexual content (not explicit), language, and the potential for a lot of (non-explicit) violence. I have a couple ideas of where I want to take this story, but I haven't quite decided. I'm kind of pulling it out of my ass as I go (fairly evident with this first chapter).**

**Anyway, please give me your thoughts, good or bad. It will help me get a better appreciation for how it's being interpreted. My goal with this fic is to break out of my fluffy-tendencies and to to embrace the fact that I can't write Ichigo or Rukia perfectly, and giving them my own twist that works with the plot I want to pursue. It's also to break the stereotypes of all IchiRuki fanfics of being the same, and to make this different from any other fic I have read. I don't want to rush into their relationship, and I want the story to be realistic and not have a shoujo plotline. (Meet Day 1, fall in love Day 2, fight Day 3, fuck Day 4, get married Day 16, etc)**

**This is probably this biggest A/N I will have for awhile, due to the fact that there was a lot of explaining to do, and for the most part, all of my A/Ns will come at the end (because of my preference for fics to be written. I just want to get to the story first and have the author introduce themselves later, so that way I waste less of my time if I happen to not enjoy the fic).**

**Anywho, like as mentioned, please give me your thoughts; they will be greatly appreciated. ALL thoughts are accepted (for example, 'great,' 'shitty,' 'you suck at writing and your brotp is fucking retarded,' etc). Any and all questions are welcomed, as well, and will be answered (eventually).**

**On a final note, I'm sorry if the story seems rushed. That's another flaw I have that I'm trying to work on with this fic. Please bear with me. :D**

**.elric-logic**


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